Neuromation ICO Review: Training AI with Data Points

December 11, 2017

Neuromation is a project riding on two hot trends in the world of tech- trainable artificial intelligence, or AI, and blockchain. In the first instance, Neuromation has a clear-cut idea about its business model- build and sell well-developed models for AI training.

At the moment, an indefinite number of developers are tackling various applications of AI. Training an AI that uses a neural network, however, requires accurate, or at least usable data points. Neuromation plans to provide a market for those data points and give developers the basis to create their AI.

Neuromation Social Media

Neuromation Overview

Neuromation starts its white paper with an altered quote by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. “Where androids dream of electric sheep,” starts the paper. Neuromation will specialize in providing “synthetic data sets” for AI training. This means the data would not be connected to real-world measurement, and instead, the team would create the data points.

WARNING!!

I looked for some ICO review videos to put here so you could get some other viewpoints of what the Neuromation ICO is all about, and whether or not you should invest. Well, 4/4 reviews I found were sponsored by Neuromation. This can be good or bad, but I just wanted you to be aware of it.

The good is that they have a budget, are marketing their product, and seem like they are actively requesting that reviewers properly announce that they are doing a sponsored review. I don't see this often, so my guess is that it's coming from the company to make sure they are in good legal standing!

The bad side is that it's just hard to get an objective opinion, especially if a big company is paying a kid to look at their ICO. So take all reviews with a grain of salt, even mine!

excerpt from sponsored review on YouTube

Until now, the gatherers of data have sometimes used humans to generate data points that would be closer to human-understandable reality. Neuromation focuses just on providing the raw material for testing and developing AI, where synthetic data points would be cheaper to produce and deliver.

Synthetic data is not the same as making up dummy data- the presence of those data points may be essential to building a robust AI data system, before exposing it to other data sets. The idea of synthetic data first came up in the 1990s and has become necessary once again.

Neuromation, however, is much more than a data creator. Its aim is to use the approach of tokenization to reward data creators and users, thus building a marketplace with the help of smart contracts over the Ethereum blockchain. And for clients, Neuromation would be a one-stop-shop to tokenized computing, by building a platform to buy the NTK NeuroToken as needed for the services.

The Neuromation Team

The Neuromation project has an ambitious idea with many fine points- and it seems to have sprung from a small group of brilliant minds. The highlight of the team seems to be a mathematician and researcher Sergey Nikolenko, an alumnus of the Steklov Mathematical Institute, St. Petersburg. The CEO, Maxim Prasolov, lists Neuromation as his second job coming out of university, following a short consulting gig. But the team has added advisors and a good PR machine, lining up among the group of well-publicized, especially promoted ICOs.

The rest of the team includes entrepreneurs and communication experts, showing that Neuromation is well prepared to fight it out in the ever more crowded ICO scene of startups.

About NeuroToken (NTK)

NTK, or NeuroToken, will be a digital asset of the ERC-20 type, running over the Ethereum blockchain. It would be the main means of exchange in the hypothetical data and AI marketplace.

The white paper, before delving into the wonders of technology, states that the NTK token is not a security and does not give access to a share of the company, or anything resembling buying a stock.

A total of 100 million NTK tokens will ever be minted. To frontload revenues, 60 million tokens would be sold at the ICO, and the unsold tokens would be burned to decrease supply. The project already has an idea of spreading around the ICO funds for various tasks.

The NTK ICO has also set various goals depending on the Ether raised. In cases of 60,000 ETH raised, the ICO would fulfill its most ambitious goals of becoming a world-known platform. Otherwise, the firm will set smaller tasks.

Investing in Neuromation: The Pros

The team seems to know what they are doing- and would probably at least manage a very successful ICO. The data experts are top-quality, and the team would be able to deliver a product in good time. In addition, the ICO has an equitable wealth distribution and a good system of bonuses.

The product of Neuromation may also find its niche and some demand, although it would take quite a long time. The highly public profile of the ICO is also a good sign that the project would not be abandoned and achieve at least some of its goals.

The Risk of Neuromation

Neuromation has been hyped far and wide and received mostly stellar reviews. But for a project where the GitHub page reveals only a single smart contract, Neuromation looks a bit dubious- given the amazing talent gathered in the team.

For your investment, you would receive an ERC-20 token, a digital asset that would have no value until the actual data market exists. Early investors may either try to flip the ICO or wait until the project delivers results

Since the NTK token has a clear-cut role in the marketplace, there is little sense in using it as a speculative asset years ahead of the product delivery. In addition, Neuromation has a roadmap of differently-scaled goals, depending on the success of the ICO. The project completion would look very different depending on the funds invested, thus not rising up to investors' expectations if a smaller sum is gathered.

Final Thoughts on Neuromation

Neuromation looks suspiciously like Synapse, a recent ICO we have reviewed. Synapse also created a token to build a data marketplace, with the hope that users pick it up. With so many digital assets serving similar means, investing in ICOs is becoming even more confusing.

And while Neuromation covers all the points, it has the signs of a shadier ICO. There is a simple whitelisting by registration, but no KYC verification. There is a long disclaimer explaining that buying the token represents the purest form of personal risk, with no protection in sight. While such fundraising may be perfectly legal, it also means the buyers are solely responsible for sending in their Ethereum.

The good thing is, Neuromation has already created some sample synthetic data, namely more than 1.3 million images. Unfortunately, that stash is still smaller compared to the already well-used Google Open Images, a collection of more than 9 million images with data points.

For the Neuromation ICO, the grade would be 2/5. While the project is promising and has attracted talent, it has too many signs of being a grab for ETH coins, and even the idea may not be entirely original.

Should YOU Invest?

Honestly, most people looking to invest in altcoins, tokens, and ICOs are hoping they discover the next Bitcoin or Ethereum. The chances of that are rare.

Nathaniell

What's up ladies and dudes! Great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed this post. My name is Nathaniell and I'm the owner of One More Cup of Coffee. I started my first online business in 2010 promoting computer software and now I help newbies start their own businesses. Sign up for my #1 recommended training course and learn how to start your business for FREE!

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